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Thursday, July 25, 2013

Hi all!Happy FESTIVE FRIDAY FIESTA!!!I'm sorry I won't be able to do any features this week or next week because I'm on vacation, but I'd still love for you to come and show off your creativity!!! So I'll be putting the link up...and when I get back from vacation, I'll make sure to do extra features from these few weeks! Thanks so much and LET'S PARTY!!!!

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Hey everyone! I hope you are having a fabulous week so far! Here at the Home Girl household, all is well. The kids are in camp this week...YAHOOOOOO! They're excited...and so are we! haha!For today's TABLESCAPE TUESDAY, I wanted to share with you the tablescape from our latest Sunday Family Dinner!

Speaking of Sunday Family Dinners...are ? If you are wondering what I'm talking about, here's a short blurb to familiarize you with our weekly family event! If you've seen this before, feel free to skip this part!
______________________________________

We started a new family tradition in January 2013 (a New Years' Resolution) that I hope continues even after the kids are grown. "SUNDAY FAMILY DINNERS!"

We pretty much have dinner together as a family most nights, but on Sundays, we have a special dinner in the dining room as opposed to the kitchen table, where we normally eat.

I get out the fine china and candles and make a special meal and so far, it has been something we look forward to each week.

Then once a month, we invite some of our extended family to join us for a Sunday family dinner.

It's also been giving me a chance to do lots of new TABLESCAPES..haha!

Because I'm on a budget but love to switch up my decor for the various tablescapes each week, I'm decorating my tables almost entirely on BARGAINS....finds from the Dollar Stores, Thrift Stores, or regular stores with sales or clearance items.

_________________________For this Sunday Family Dinner, I have named it "the HUES of BLUES".

I decided to use the inspiration of a SHOWER CURTAIN that I recently got at Goodwill. I actually didn't notice that it was a shower curtain until I got it home and was going through my stuff at a recent Thrift Store shopping haul. I thought it was a tablecloth.I decided that, shower curtain or not, I was going to use this on a tablescape. I loved the muted turquoise color with the darker blue floral design...not too much, but still striking. It wouldn't fit all the way as a tablecloth, so I simply folded it in half and decided to use it under my white tablecloth as a runner. I'm glad I did this. I liked the way the white kind of offset the blues and made the colors stand out a little more to me.I kept the décor fairly simple because I wanted to "showcase" the table runner. The centerpiece was a simple silk flower bouquet I found at a garage sale for $2, I believe. I loved the look of these flowers. The glue stuff at the bottom has gotten a bit browned, so if anyone knows how to clean that up, I'd love to hear ideas for that! Other than that, I just love it!On both sides of the centerpiece are some small Pier 1 flower bowls clustered together and a tall glass candleholder with different blue glass pieces and a white candle.For each place setting, I used a large white charger from Old Time Pottery, Some blue rimmed dinner plates I've had since I got married, A pfaltzgraff blue salad plate from Goodwill,And to top it off, a cute blue and white bird/floral designed dessert plate from Ross on clearance!The cobalt blue glasses were from dollar tree and our church's local thrift store. I used white napkins with blue bling napkin rings I found on Ebay.All in all, I really like how it turned out and my family did too. Thanks so much for joining me for another TABLESCAPE TUESDAY! Hope you have a wonderful day!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

HOLA AMIGOS!!!It's PARTY TIME!!!! FESTIVE FRIDAY FIESTA-Style!!!!I hope you're ready to share your wonderful creativity and feast your eyes on some wonderful ideas!!!But first, I wanted to share a couple features from last week's Fiesta!These features are all about the Festive FOOD that was shared! We had lots of wonderful recipes that people shared with us! So.....let me show you a few!First up, Cathy from A PEEK INTO MY PARADISE shared her recipe for White Chicken Lasagne!

This looks very yummy! Next, Leigh Anne from YOUR HOME BASED MOM shared her recipe for Lemon Ice Cream!

This looks so refreshing! I really want to try this!!! =DAnd last, but not least, Lizbeth from JUST DIP IT IN CHOCOLATE shared her recipe for S'mores Pizza!

I love S'mores and I love pizza so this just sounds amazing! This is one of 3 dessert pizza recipes she shared at our Fiesta! I'd love to try every one!!!!Congratulations ladies! Now, onto the party!!! Can't wait to see what you have to share this week!!!

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Hi everyone!Well, it's about that time again. Time for another "WHADDA WE EATIN' WEDNESDAY!" So glad you could stop by this week! Today I wanted to share with you a great recipe that I found from the Crockin' Girls! I'm telling you, I can't get enough of these girls' recipes!!!They have a great cookbook out that I decided to buy. I don't really use cookbooks these days because of Pinterest, but this is one I knew I would use. The recipe is found in the cookbook, but is also found online here. I barely tweaked this at all...and it was fabulous!Here's what you'll need:1 package of Italian Dressing mix1 8 oz container of Cream cheese with onion and chives1 cup of dry white wine (or 1 cube of chicken bullion with 1 cup water - which we used)1/2 cup of butter2 cans of cream of mushroom soup8-10 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (we used 20 frozen chicken tenderloins)2 boxes of bowtie pasta (which look like angel wings to the kids!)Place the chicken into the crock pot. Add all other ingredients except the pasta.Cook on low for 7-8 hours. Make pasta according to package directions in a large pot and add the ingredients from the crock pot to the big pasta pot (after draining the pasta) just before serving. This made a VERY tasty meal that my whole family really enjoyed. The sauce was light and flavorful, but not too heavy. The kids didn't find it too creamy, and actually asked for seconds! My husband also really liked this....and all of them asked me to make it again sometime! YAY!You can add a can of peas to this or some cooked broccoli and it would also make it yummy! My kids do NOT like their veggies mixed in with this pasta so we left it outThis also made plenty for a larger family gathering...or you can do what we did...make this and then freeze half for another time. This did freeze well, and tasted yummy reheated as well! Just add a few tablespoons of water to it when to heat it up.Thanks so much for joining me for another WHADDA WE EATIN' WEDNESDAY! Hope you enjoy this if you try it! Thanks again for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon! =)

Monday, July 8, 2013

Hi everyone!Welcome to another Tablescape Tuesday! I hope you had a great 4th of July weekend!!! We sure did! We had some friends over for 4th of July and it was a blast! We also were able to purchase a beautiful new china cabinet from a friend of mine who is moving and needed to sell. It just turned out that this china cabinet matches our dining room furniture so great! And the price couldn't be beat! Here is a picture of our beautiful new addition to the HOME GIRL Household!

I just love having this. I'm still working on filling it up, and I'm planning to get a few small cabinets to put on either side to fill out the wall, but I really like having a china cabinet! It's my first one ever! I am hoping to try to match the china cabinet to my tables each week for our Sunday Family Dinners, if possible.Speaking of Sunday Family Dinners...are you wondering what I'm talking about? If so, here's a short blurb to familiarize you with this new thing we're doing here at the Home Girl Household! If you've seen this before, feel free to skip this part!
______________________________________

We started a
new family tradition in January 2013 (a New Years' Resolution) that I hope
continues even after the kids are grown. "SUNDAY
FAMILY DINNERS!"

We pretty
much have dinner together as a family most nights, but on Sundays, we have a
special dinner in the dining room as opposed to the kitchen table, where we
normally eat.

I get out
the fine china and candles and make a special meal and so far, it has been
something we look forward to each week.

Then once a
month, we invite some of our extended family to join us for a Sunday family
dinner.

It's also been giving me a chance to do lots of new
TABLESCAPES..haha!

Because I'm
on a budget but love to switch up my decor for the various tablescapes each
week, I'm decorating my tables almost entirely on BARGAINS....finds from the
Dollar Stores, Thrift Stores, or regular stores with sales or clearance
items.

_________________________

So, for today's Sunday Family Dinner, I decided to use this inspiration of some great wrapping paper to make a table runner! I just loved this colorful paper with the brown background!

I paired it with a brown tablecloth. I had originally tried white, but it turned out to be too much white when I added the plates and the candles, etc. I think the brown makes the white pop a little more, as well as the colors!

For my centerpiece I wanted to keep it simple, and let the wrapping paper table runner take center stage. So, I used three glass cylinders of varying sizes and filled them with water...then I added just a few drops of food coloring in the pink, blue, and green in the table. I was surprised how little food coloring I needed to make these quite colorful! The food coloring was the "neon" colors food coloring. Around them, I put some tea lights in some small glass cylinders to try to light up the colors. I like the way this turned out and my family really liked it too!On each side of the centerpiece, I put some simple glass candleholders with white candles, some pier 1 flower bowls with tealights, and my Ikea white pillar candle holders with white candlesThe Plate Breakdown is fairly simple. Pink, turquoise and lime green chargers from Michaels, Dollar store white dinner plates and dollar store white dinner bowls to match. The white napkins also had turquoise, lime green and pink bling napkin rings. I alternated so that each place setting had a different color napkin ring than the charger.We had my awesome in-laws in town for the weekend so they joined us for our Sunday Family Dinner before they headed home. It was great to have them and I loved being able to share this special meal with them.

Thanks so much for joining me for another Tablescape Tuesday! I hope you have a wonderful week and I hope to see you again real soon! =)

Friday, July 5, 2013

Hey guys!Ok, I totally dropped the ball and wasn't able to get this up for us because of the 4th of July. SO sorry about that!But....if you're still up for a Fiesta! Let's start now! Better late than never, right???Let's Party!!!

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Hi all!Welcome to another WHADDA WE EATIN' WEDNESDAY!!!Today I want to share with you a GREAT recipe I found on Pinterest recently (Yes, I pretty much am making almost every new recipe from Pinterest! lol)This was shared by the Crockin' Girls and is a super easy and delicious recipe for Taquito Enchilada Casserole!Here's What you'll need...

1 box of frozen Taquitos - (24 count for a larger crock pot, 15 for a medium one)2 cans of cream of mushroom soup1 can of rotel (10 oz)1 can of tomato sauce (8 oz) (you don't need this if you're using the smaller crock pot with the 15 taquitos)1 cup of sour cream (not the French Onion Dip as pictured..lol)2 cups shredded Mexican (or cheddar) cheeseSpray the bottom of your crock pot.Place the taquitos into the bottom of the crock pot. In a medium bowl, mix the soup, rotel, tomato sauce and sour cream. Then, pour the mixture over the taquitos, then top with the shredded cheese and cook on low for 3 hours.This makes a super yummy weeknight meal with a little kick! No, your eyes are not deceiving you...I made this recipe twice...once with my black crock pot and once with my white crock pot...haha! The after photos are with the white one because I forgot to get pictures the first time I made it!Our family really likes this casserole and it is sooooo easy! I love that!I hope you enjoy this if you make it! I know we loved it! My daughter was the only one who thought it was a little too spicy, but she still ate it and didn't put up a fuss. Next time I'll use the MILD Rotel for her, or just used diced tomatoes without the green chiles.Thanks again for stopping by! Hope to see you again soon!

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Hi all!Happy TABLESCAPE TUESDAY!!!!I hope you had a great weekend and are ready for the 4th of July! It's still kind of blowing my mind that the year is half over already!For today's Tablescape Tuesday, I wanted to share a fun table for our most recent Sunday Family Dinner.

In case you happen to be wondering.....I'd love to take a short minute to explain what our "Sunday Family Dinners" are all about for those of you who are seeing my blog for the first time...If you've read this before, feel free to skip this part...____________________________________________

We started a new family tradition in January 2013 (a New Years' Resolution) that I hope continues even after the kids are grown. "SUNDAY FAMILY DINNERS!"

We pretty much have dinner together as a family most nights, but on Sundays, we have a special dinner in the dining room as opposed to the kitchen table, where we normally eat.

I get out the fine china and candles and make a special meal and so far, it has been something we look forward to each week.

Then once a month, we invite some of our extended family to join us for a Sunday family dinner.

It's also been giving me a chance to do lots of new TABLESCAPES..haha!

Because I'm on a budget but love to switch up my decor for the various tablescapes each week, I'm decorating my tables almost entirely on BARGAINS....finds from the Dollar Stores, Thrift Stores, or regular stores with sales or clearance items._________________________

So, this past Sunday Family dinner was all about the 4th of July! I wanted a different feel than my Memorial Day Tablescape, (which you can see HERE) with more of an "Americana" feel...and decided to go for a little more modern Red, white and blue!

I Found some pretty blue and white flowered fabric at Walmart a few months ago, and got 2 half-yards of it. Then I has some dollar store scarves, so I used the red one for the center runner.
I found these cute red, white and blue plates at Goodwill a few months ago for 50 cents each, so I thought I'd add those to the table. They went great with the red charger from Walmart, and my dollar store white plates.

I bought two strands of patriotic star garland at Dollar tree, so I decided to use one to decorate the chandelier, and one to spread across the table. I was hoping for a more hap-hazard look to it, so I didn't flatten it down while on the table.

My centerpieces on the table were a little more simple because I didn't want any extra tall pieces getting in the way from everyone being able to see eachother. (We were supposed to have company come for the dinner, but they had to cancel at the last minute.) I just a used a lantern I got on clearance at Target and I added some dollar store candles and red and blue glass pieces. On both sides of the lantern were a few dollar store glass candleholders with red and blue glass pieces and a white votive candle, and two martini glasses turned upside down with red candles on top (a very easy and inexpensive idea for some tall candleholders)

So, there you have it. I liked the way this table came out. I also loved that it was a very inexpensive table to put together!

Thanks so much for joining me for another TABLESCAPE TUESDAY! Have a great day and I hope to see you again soon!!! =)

About Me

Hi Everyone! I'm the "Home Girl"
I'm a homeschool mother of two and wife of one from Florida! I have recently embarked on a journey...to make my home a more beautiful and organized place. I want to do this for my family...so I can teach my kids better habits around the home. I want to do it for my friends...so that when I entertain, it will be a stress-free and fun experience for everyone! I also want to do it for my husbandself, because we are just more peaceful and happy....when things are neat and organized. I wanted to chronicle my journeys and hopefully share some inspiration along the way! Thank you for coming to this little slice of blogland! I hope you will come back often and drop me a line with any comments, suggestions, etc. I'd love to hear from you!